The Sales Café

People buy from people. Trite but true, whether it's B-to-B, B-to-C, complex or simple business relationships. Successful salespeople never lose sight of that little fact. Talk to one and ask them. Look in the mirror and ask yourself!

What complicates things is how many options there are for meeting people, from Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook to plain old networking meetings held by local organizations, and everything in-between. Perhaps no matter how much your company spends on marketing, sooner or later, the buyer is going to check YOU out, on their own, without your knowledge. They want to see if you're the kind of person they want to do business with.

Knowing that, how will you position yourself? Do you want to portray a conservative persona on LinkedIn and a cool one on Facebook? Would you rant on Twitter or "keep your powder dry" knowing that your potential customer might be shopping you instead of your company? One thing is for sure, when everybody shops the Web, your presence is required and your privacy is not the buyer's concern. 

Companies spend an enormous amount of energy and money trying to control the buyer-seller conversation on their websites. However the trip shoppers take, of their own choosing, on their way to a buying decision tells us an interesting story. When we analyze the traffic on our own site, we see people moving from the home page to the blog, to the team page and then out of the site, moving on definitely to LinkedIn and probably to Facebook or Twitter. I think this is common.

So, the moral is YOU, whether you are the owner, CEO, VP Sales, or an account executive, may have more to do with how enticing your product or service looks to the buyer than any feature, benefit or research paper that the marketing department can come up with.    

ELA's lead generation survey results are in!  Nearly all respondents are from or with sales organizations where they are responsible for the relationship or partnership with their customers. Everyone expects salespeople to generate new leads, every month.

The best return on time invested included local networking/public speaking and asking for referrals.  Over 80% thought the lead generation approach used was vital or important to developing trust.

Respondent advice on lead generation ideas sorted into four primary buckets.

• 1) Reward lead generation activity as part of overall sales process
• 2) Focus on the Customer in all interactions
• 3) Be professional including making and keeping commitments to prospects
• 4) Always provide value by knowing your product and value proposition

Since relationships are based on trust, then the lead generation approaches like asking for referrals, networking, and public speaking must cultivate trust between the prospect and the sales person.  Let's create a list of tips for each approach that are both effective and build trust.  I will post a short ELA RTG blog entry on each approach over the next few weeks.  You can enhance the approach by adding your comments and ideas. 

Thank you to all who participated.

Creating a trusting customer relationship is at the core of every B2B or B2C salesperson's role. Sales is a company's face to the customer. Whether talking on the telephone or in person, the salesperson's goal is to make a connection with the customer. Through that interaction, the prospect and/or customer develops the trust that results in a buy decision. 

Salespeople are generally expected to generate their own leads in addition to those generated by marketing. Their ability to do so is the difference between success and dashed expectations. A salesperson who has confidence that their lead generation approach creates trust will be motivated to repeat the approach. 

What is the best way for salespeople to generate new leads while fostering a trusting customer/sales relationship? 

Please click on the link below to participate in ELA's six question Business Development Survey: Generating Leads and Building Trust. Share what you think is the role of a salesperson in arranging the initial customer meeting. Offer your ideas for approaches that lay the foundation for a trusting relationship. By sharing, you will receive a summary report of the results including a list of ideas to improve lead generation performance in your sales organization or territory.

Please click here to take the short (only 6 questions!) ELA Consulting Group Lead Generation Survey!